The true answers to all your burning questions
Q: Where does Dead Head come from?
A: Dead Head is from the city Zwolle in The Netherlands.
People still write Kampen as our hometown. But no bandmember has actually lived there for 15+ years.
Q: When was Dead Head formed?
A: The band was formed in March of 1989.
Q: Is Dead Head on a label?
A: We’re proud to be have a real cool partnership with Hammerheart/Petrichor records from The Netherlands. They released our Swine Plague album in 2017, will release the new album Slave Driver and have also done reissues of several of our older albums. Hammerheart/Petrichor is distributed by Napalm Records worldwide.
Q: Are there any former bandmembers?
A: Yes.
Tom van Dijk was the singer/bass player for most of Dead Head’s existence. He can be heard on most releases, except Depression Tank and Slave Driver – both done with Ralph.
Also… Marco Kleinnibbelink replaced our drummer Hans for a few years in the nineties. Marco did two European tours and recorded one album with the band.
Other important people who have helped us out in the past are:
Michiel Dekker on vocals around 2000 – 2002
and Johan Wesdijk (RIP) on vocals and Alex Geerts on bass during the preproduction of Haatland.
Q: Is there any unreleased material?
A: Not much. On the recent reissues of older albums we’ve included most of the available demo stuff. The reissue of Haatland -for instance- includes 19 bonustracks.
Q: Have Dead Head members ever done sideprojects?
A: Yes. The best known one was the doom/death band BEYOND BELIEF. They were around from 1991 until 1996 and released two full length albums, that have recently been reissued by Hammerheart on vinyl and cd. Robbie played guitar in Beyond Belief, Ronnie was one of the two bass players. Beyond Belief did some reunion shows about 15 years ago, but has since been laid to rest.
ASPHYX – Ronnie was involved with Asphyx around the release of the God Cries album. He’s pictured on the album cover. There were tour plans, but the tour never happened, because Theo Loomans passed away. Ronnie did also participate in the 3o years of Asphyx show in Turock, Essen.
EQUIMANTHORN – An early black metal outfit that featured Tom van Dijk (vocals and guitar) and Robbie Woning (drums). The band released one demo (Clouds Of Death) in 1990 and performed one gig in the toilet of the old Hedon club in Zwolle.
Other side projects:
APPLE – The band Hans Spijker started after he left DH in 1992, together with our friend Olaf van Malm. Apple played cool hard rock in the style of Van Halen, Mr Big and other bands with great guitar work.
ELISE – A classic hardrock / metalband that has been around since 1980.
Robbie played guitar in this band from 2010 until 2023 and can be seen on the live dvd that came with the reissue of the album No Time For Masquerade.
JURASSIC PARK – Hans has been drumming for this rockband from the Netherlands for a few years now. They are recording a second album in the summer of 2023.
KILL DIVISION – A band by Tom van Dijk and Hans Spijker. Not to be confused with the Dutch band that released an album on Metal Blade. Kill Division played Prong-like catchy and thorough sounding metal. Bassplayer was Rene Bronwasser of C of E. They did only one gig at a music store in Zwolle.